Petroleum Oil on Dune by Frank Herbert

Thomas Chi was raised on the Dune novels in Frank Herbert’s hometown of Santa Rosa, California. The novels follow him from Prague, Czech Republic to Istanbul, Turkey. The science fiction inspired his education in technology as he created advertising in San Francisco, California for Charles Schwab International Electronic Brokerage, Adobe Systems Illustrator 7.0 and Digital Medical Systems before heading to Florida and New York to develop large scale projects in nanotechnology and portals to teach via video encoding tutorials overseas with wireless connections years before YouTube was established in the United States of America. As a hobby, Thomas Chi writes books about experiences abroad including the Dune novels. What he learns about the world’s reaction to Frank Herbert’s Dune might surprise you. The supply of Frank Herbert’s books cannot keep up with the demand at university bookstores in the center of Ankara, Turkey; Nor the city centers in towns along the Mediterranean in Greece, Egypt and France, because readers find Herbert’s material prophetic in describing the times laced with intrigue over petroleum and universal interest in space travel, time folding and political treachery that topples kingdoms. This is a series of studies on the experiences of finding oil in the Dune novels by Frank Herbert the father of Paul Atreides.

Thomas Chi writes about traveling the planet with an interest in petroleum spice as the materials apply to literature such as Dune, the novel about Paul Atreides. Thomas Chi has traveled to interview petroleum executives worldwide from Kuwait, Turkey, Egypt, China, Israel, Greece, Germany and in the United States, especially the coast of California where oil is drilled from San Diego to San Francisco, the states along the Gulf of Mexico from Florida to Houston, Texas. Prime examples of Frank Herbert’s book can be seen in nanotechnology, atomic force energy sources, and drilling for petroleum. As I write this sentence, leaders in the United States, China, and Europe fight desperately for oil in the Middle East and North Africa. U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta is the first Pentagon Chief to set foot on Libyan soil after the revolution to overthrow Gaddafi. No other country has sent their officials to Libya. European leaders have been ousted over petroleum production hurting their regions of responsibility; Silvio Berlusconi, Georgios Papandreous, Muammar Gaddafi; Hosni Mubarak; Naoto Kan and the Kuwaiti cabinet has handed in resignation letters. Civil war rages in the cities of Syria. Israel and Iran face off. Pakistan is at odds with the United States. Washington diplomats fight over an oil pipeline from Canada. Colorado discovered billions of barrels of petroleum close to Denver, Colorado. Frank Herbert describes Arrakis. Arrakis is “Iraq is”. Hwi Noree sounds phonetically similar to Hillary as in Secretary of State Clinton. Many of the Turkish terms are words I use to speak in Istanbul, Turkey. Ankara bookstores cannot keep the supply of Dune books up with the demand for Frank Herbert’s popularity. Series one and two fly off the shelves. University students find the Dune series prophetic in describing modern events as history unfolds the way time travel is experienced in Dune with space and time folding to navigate across the universe. On the very same afternoon President Barack Obama sends Leon Panetta to Libya, the war in Iraq is officially over for United States soldiers returning home for the winter holidays. Thomas Chi wrote in Athens, Greece, Cairo, Egypt and Frankfurt, Germany during the Persian Gulf War 1991. He spent a week with petroleum producers from Kuwait on the Nile River between Cairo and Aswan. Allied Apache attacks began as Scud missiles from Iraq struck Israel. Much of the intrigue is layered in the pages of Frank Herbert’s Dune.